STEVIN (Simon).

La Castrametation, according to the order & usage of the most illustrious, most excellent prince and lord Maurice, by the grace of God, Prince of Orange, Count of Nassau. - New way of fortification by sluices. Rotterdam, Jean Waesbergue, 1618. Together 2 works in a small volume in-folio, stiff vellum (Binding of the time). Cockle, n°703. - Marini, p. 39. Edition in French of these two texts which one generally finds joined together, as it is the case here. The Elzéviers also gave a French edition the same year (cf. Willems, n°149). La Castrametation, a work whose title refers to the military term meaning "the art of choosing and properly disposing of the site of a camp or stronghold", is decorated with a portrait of Maurice d'Orange, count of Nassau, his coat of arms opposite, and about twenty woodcuts in the text showing technical diagrams for the layout of camps. The treatise on fortifications by locks, which is bound afterwards, is considered the first work on the subject. It is illustrated with several woodcuts in the text. Engraved armorial bookplate (18th century). Pen marks and old manuscript bookplate on the last two endpapers. The last three leaves of the volume are a bit loose, some foxing, wetness on the edge of the first quires affecting notably the portrait and the engraving of the coat of arms. Vellum a little soiled.